FLB home News resources for undergraduates graduates faculty staff graduate assistants flb business office flb graduate student services   staff directory FLB directories UIUC home old browsers April 26, 2005 2004-2005/078 Conference looks at satire in ancient Greece, Rome A one-day conference on Friday at the U. of I. will look at political satire in ancient Greece and Rome and its parallels to contemporary politics. Entitled, “Dirty Poems: Satire and Political Dissent in the Ancient World,” the conference is scheduled to take place Friday, April 29, from 1-7 p.m. in the Lucy Ellis Lounge, 1080 Foreign Relations Building, 707 S. Mathews Ave., U. The conference is free and open to the public. Greek and Roman citizens lived under various democratic, plutocratic, and imperial regimes that jealously guarded against sedition. Although the urge to satirize was often powerful, especially under egomaniacal emperors such as Nero and Domitian, humor and verbal abuse were tightly restricted throughout most of Greco-Roman history. With no constitutional right to free speech to fall back on, satirists were always carefully watched, and they performed accordingly. Fast forward to January of 2005, when the Secret Service issued a ban against political displays along the President’s inaugural parade route. Puppets, paper mache objects and statues, basic props of parody and symbolic abuse, were among items banned for reasons of ‘public safety’. This conference features an international cast of experts on ancient humor. They will look at political humor in the ancient world with special focus on the ‘licensed’ generic enterprises of iambic poetry, Old Comedy, and satire. But the questions posed will be relevant to today: is the proliferation of humorous abuse the sign of a healthy political society, or a broken one? What happens to satire in times of war under the banners of ‘consensus’ and ‘patriotism’? What are the limits one can reasonably accept for the cause of public safety? The president for the conference is Ralph Johnson, University of Chicago. Presenters include: Ralph Rosen, University of Pennsylvania; David Wray, University of Chicago; Andrea Cucchiarelli, La Sapienza, Rome; Dan Hooley, University of Missouri-Columbia; Cathy Keane, Washington University-St. Louis; and Kirk Freudenberg, UIUC. The conference is sponsored by the UIUC Department of Classics. A reception will follow the completion of the conference.